We have been seeing images of radars on TV and magazines, so what does radar really do. Radars can be named as a device which captures the object and detect its location, speed, height, range and where it is headed using radio waves. Radars are mainly used by army to detect enemy aircraft’s missiles or ships infiltrating inside their territory. Radars can also be used to detect weather conditions and texture of a terrain. The working of radar is pretty simple, it will transmit radio waves into the air and this will rebound from the object it is targeted and the dish and the receiver on the radar will capture the data and process it to useful information.

Radars are designed and commissioned for specific targets and in some we can input the desired target and set it manually. As the functionality changes the design and the setup of the radar also changes, some may have permanent antennas and transmitters which construct a pattern of array beams.

These beams will depend on the shape of these radars, but all these radars will perform a single function. Another type of radars are the multi-function radars, in this a user can obtain more functions from single radar. This is achieved by the usage of scanner frequently and shifting phase or element switching. One disadvantage of such radars is it is not flexible enough to adapt changes.

Adaptive active phased array radar or in short AAPAR is a type of multi functional radar where the controlling of beam formation and managing the radar happens with the help of mounted transmitter and receiver. These changes are done keeping in mind the target size, environmental conditions etc.

The features include formation of digital beam, tracking, scheduling the tasks, selection of frequency, generation and selection of wave form and managing the beam. The roles of such radar include detection, tracking, identification and confirmation of targets, calculation of impact points, traces the trajectory, assessment killing etc.